A New Sentinel Enters

The key factors which helped Intel/McAfee bag the #1 slot is its position as a pure channel-focused company with its partners extending its presence and strength geographically in every market across India. Its partners complement the technology with their reach and knowledge of the markets.Enterprise Security Solutions (ESS) has been another area where competition has been tough with Intel/McAfee emerging victorious after a good challenge from Symantec which has been quite active recently in the domain.

While earlier the complaint was that it was mainly metro-focused, Intel/McAfee seems to have addressed the issue to a large extent this year. McAfee was also rated the highest in after-sales support and scored well in credit facility, service reliability, advertising strategy, richness in online resources and communications with the solution providers.

Innovativeness of McAfee’s market development programs too came in for special praise from the channel partners. Most importantly, partners and system integrators, squeezed in a tight market by profitability pressures seemed to have lapped up the good profit margins given by McAfee.

Symantec has got maximum endorsements from the solution providers over the security aspects of the product and the pricing. It is also ahead of its competitors in responsiveness and availability of service personnel and has an effective online partner portal.

Respondents stated that scalability, technological edge and a sound channel plan were the primary plus points for Symantec. This is an endorsement of Symantec’s vision helps partners in differentiating their business, maximize returns on investment and accelerate their profits.

However, in terms of marketing support and fund allocation for its partners for marketing and promotional needs, Microsoft has outshone any other competitors in the domain but scored the lowest when it came to after-sales support.

Swot Analysis of Winner Trio

Intel/McAfee

Strengths

• Credit Policy received
• Richness of online resources offered
• Innovativeness of market development programs

Weaknesses

• Less profit margins given by Vendor
• High product pricing
• High price vs. performance ratio

Symantec

Strengths

• Technological leadership of the product
• User-friendliness of the product
• Presence of Online Partner Portal & its effectiveness

Weaknesses

• Insufficient back-end incentives and its settlement
• Less profit margins given by vendor
• Availability and competence of Account Managers

RSA

Strengths

• Overall Product Reliability
• Conformance to specifications
• Richness of online resources offered

Weaknesses

• Insufficient promptness with which the schemes/incentive programs are communicated
• Less dedicated personnel for maintaining relationship
• Less allocation of funds for marketing (co-op funding)